


A Sweeter Smelling Rose

by justlikedaylightsavingstime



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Family, Gen, I don't think it's massively graphic (and i hope it isn't fetishising), as far as I'm aware, but I guess you can say it has a happy ending, but proceed with caution, niska & family, pretty damn angsty and dark, so many Niska feels, the warning refers to Davis Elster's rape of Niska
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 08:19:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4912150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justlikedaylightsavingstime/pseuds/justlikedaylightsavingstime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niska and her families.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sweeter Smelling Rose

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably best summed up as a fic about Niska and family. It's about her coming to terms with the past and the impact David Elster has had on her life (and about her love of the Hawkins). Like it says in the tags, proceed cautiously (i.e. don't read) if rape is a trigger for you. 
> 
> David Elster is painted as a monster (which in my head he kinda is) but at least Joe isn't mentioned in this fic ;)
> 
> I tried to be clever with the title, and I'm not sure if it works.

Elster. It was just a name really. A way to connect herself with the people she loved. To claim kinship, and let the world know that if it wanted to harm one of them then it would have to come through her first. One more way to show that she respected her family enough to be identified with them. It was a badge of honour that Niska should have been proud to march under.

Except that it was also his name. It was the mantle he’d worn when he placed his hands on his keyboard and typed the first line of the script that made her who she was. The one that he wore as the dark crevices of his brain worked away, practically rubbing his hands together to add that little bit of code that would eventually define some of Niska’s first (and most memorable) experiences of being human.

It was the name he borne when he first touched her, cold hands grabbing and pulling and yanking. When he grunted into her ear that this is what she’d been made for. That her purpose was to serve the name of Elster, that she was good for nothing else but this. It was the name that came to dominate her first experience of fear. The suddenness of the action as he’d pinned her down had paralysed her, dampening her fight as she stared at his twisted features in numb shock. It was almost impossible, that first time, to do much more than lay there. She’d never really known anything but that man, hadn’t been programmed to say no. Or at least not in a way that would make a difference. He’d told her that she owed the name of Elster a great debt for bringing her into this world, and it’s one she found herself repaying countless times over the years.

She was well aware what ‘Elster’ meant. It echoed through her head everytime she cleaned herself up, wiped the evidence of his debauchery from her body but not from her soul. Even after he died and she found herself at the others of the species, it was still her name she screamed in despair after each encounter. The moniker was a complicated piece of machinery designed to forever chain Niska to him and his whims. Not a show of love and solidarity, as a name should be, but a cold hard claim to ownership.

Yet the real power of the name to hurt and enslave her was hidden in bright blue eyes, inquisitive glances and mischievous smiles. And he knew that, twisted and tormented that love she held for his son. Niska would never forget the knifelike pain of his words stabbing into her consciousness, the ones that told her that if she didn’t submit to this and silently take the horrors he dealt to her, that she would lose everything. Not only the other synths, the ones that had come to be her brothers and sisters, but that brilliant beautiful boy who brought such sunshine into her life. All of it would be torn from her grasp forever. Holding her love of the Elster family over her head had worked exactly the way he knew it would, tainting any happiness that remained for Niska.

***

As Niska settles back into the train seat, running her fingers over the flashdrive, she knows that she isn’t going to let Elster haunt her any longer. The things she plans to do to bring about the secure and vibrant future of her species will have him turning in his grave, the bastard. It would destroy him to his very core to see Niska using his work to enable her people to walk the earth, not as ever-intelligent slaves, but as powerful feeling creatures in their own right. No human is ever going to have the power over another synth (or human, for that matter) that he held over her. At least, not if she can stop it. She is done suffering in silence. Niska is damn well ready to fight.  
This is about compassion, a trait she is still struggling to comprehend herself. It’s about defending those who can’t protect themselves and carving a place in the world for her kin. And as much as she can’t escape from her past, Niska isn’t going to let it rule her. Her future has nothing to do with him. She won’t let Elster have power over her, and this legacy of hers is not going to be tainted by his name. He won’t get the credit this time. There is only one name that represents the love and hope in Niska’s heart. A name that’s connected to the bubbliest (and cuddliest) human she’s ever met, and a family that barely hesitated to protect those Niska holds dearest and that showed that there is something to be said for humanity after all. Niska’s soon to be realised family will march under the banner of ‘Hawkins’.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the angst and thanks for reading. Comments, silly or constructive, are more than welcome, as is kudos etc. If you want to share some love for Humans or for Niska then you can bombard me here or on tumblr at [justlikedaylightsavingstime](justlikedaylightsavingstime.tumblr.com).


End file.
